Obama pokes at GOP at WHCD

President Barack Obama on Saturday night held true to the rule that the talent at the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner is supposed to “singe, not burn” the opposition when he put some fire on Republican targets during his comedic routine at the gala event.

“We gather during a historic anniversary,” Obama began in his remarks at D.C’s event of the year, held at the Washington Hilton with more than 2,000 attendees. “Last year at this time, in fact on this very weekend, we finally delivered justice to one of the world’s most notorious individuals.” Bin Laden? Nope. The ballroom’s screens showed huge pictures of Donald Trump, and the crowd ate it up.

The 2012 presidential campaign, of course, was front and center throughout the night, including in the routine of the evening’s closer, late-night comic Jimmy Kimmel. Obama, in his well-received barbs, highlighted the wealth of his likely rival in November when he gazed out over the room and referred to the “great, magnificent Hilton ballroom, or what Mitt Romney would call a little fixer-upper.”

That wasn’t Obama’s only ding on Romney: “He and I actually have a lot in common. … We also both have degrees from Harvard. I have one, he has two. What a snob!” the president jabbed, a reference to Rick Santorum’s much-criticized comment that Obama was a snob for wanting young people to go to college. (Santorum was spotted giving a thumbs up to the joke.)

Obama told the Hilton crowd of media stars and Hollywood celebs that Romney “took a few hours off the other day to see ‘The Hunger Games.’ It’s a movie about people who court wealthy sponsors and then brutally savage each other until one contestant is left standing. I’m sure this was really a great change of pace for him.”

The president went on to note that the follow-up act, ABC’s Kimmel, got his start years ago on “The Man Show.” “In Washington, that’s what we call a congressional hearing on contraception,” the president quipped.

As is customary, Obama also made sure to take plenty of self-deprecating shots at his administration and himself, from his struggles with kicking the cigarette habit to the controversy over his birthplace to how much he’s aged in just four years — and to a recent scandal in his administration.

“Look at this party. We’ve got men in tuxes, women in gowns, fine wine, first-class entertainment. I was just relieved to learn this wasn’t a GSA conference,” Obama cracked.

“Not even the mind reader knew what they were thinking,” he added, referring to the organizers of the costly GSA conference in Las Vegas.

Obama joked that he wanted wrap up his remarks since “I have to get the Secret Service home in time for their new curfew.” And about those pictures of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton having a beer and dancing in Colombia? “She won’t stop drunk-texting me from Cartagena.”

For his part, Kimmel turned the zingers up a notch — thought still not burning — and lobbed his bombs throughout the room (“Everything that is wrong with America is here in this room tonight,” he said), especially on the president himself.

“I know you won’t be able to laugh at any of my jokes about the Secret Service, so cover your ears if that’s physically possible,” Kimmel said.

“Remember when the country rallied around you in hopes of a better tomorrow? That was hilarious. That was your best one yet.”